The following patents comprise the closest known prior art:
Canada: No. PA1 USA: Nos.
887,182 PA2 3,496,670 PA2 3,604,145 PA2 3,894,354 PA2 3,895,456
Generally speaking, there are known in the prior art a large number of toy building block arrangements in which the blocks may be interconnected or adhered to form fanciful structures according to the imagination of the builder and the limitations of the blocks. These blocks often are configured as rectangular prisms, with a top surface having an array of projections extending therefrom, and a bottom surface having a similar array of receptacles adapted to receive and engage the projections of a subjacent block. The limitations of these blocks are related in part to the fact that only the top and bottom surfaces are interconnecting, while the side surfaces impinge mutually but do not adhere. It is thus necessary to construct forms by accretion of vertically stacked arrays of blocks. These arrays may be extended by laterally half-lapping the rows of blocks to form walls, interconnecting the walls in intersecting fashion to create stable structures, and the like. However, it is also necessary to form generally rectilinear structures, due to the perpendicular relationships of the sides of the blocks and to the requirement that only top and bottom surfaces can be joined.
The Canadian patent cited discloses a block arrangement in which some blocks are split and hinged in the middle, apparently to increase the angular structural combinational possibilities. However, this approach does not provide for extended pivotting block structures, nor does it improve on the side-to-side joining of the blocks. Clearly the prior art has not addressed the concept of joining building blocks end-to-end as well as top-to-bottom, nor has it dealt with the concept of pivotal freedom in the end-to-end interconnections.